Shocking photos show a pensioner with a pen embedded in her arm after an attack on a coach.

Cynthia Bell, 66, from Durham, was helping at her husband's coach firm when a man got on one vehicle and refused to leave.

As she went to stop the man tampering with the controls around the driver's seat, he grabbed a pen from the dashboard and stabbed her in the arm with it before running off.

The incident happened in the coach park in Seasiders Way in Blackpool at around 5pm on August 24.

Detective Superintendent Mark Dickinson, from Lancashire Police, said: "As you can see from Mrs Bell's photograph, significant force must have been used by the offender who stabbed her. She was lucky to have escaped without serious blood loss or any nerve damage.

"We are pursuing a number of lines of inquiry, including CCTV and forensic opportunities.

"I am particularly keen to identify and speak with two young women who were with the offender and I would ask them, or anyone who recognises them from their descriptions, to contact me as soon as possible."

The offender is described as a white male in his late teens or early 20s, 6ft and of stocky build, with short dark hair.

He was with two young women. The first is described as white, wearing a pink top with a floral pattern, with a pram or pushchair. She walked with a limp.

The second woman had blonde hair and was wearing a cream jumper. She had a tattoo on the right side of her lower stomach on display.